Centralized and decentralized computer networks are available with a wide variety of peripheral devices that are connected together so that they can communicate with each other. For applications requiring the output of data from a computer system, one or more output devices are provided in the form of a monitor, a printer, a disk drive, or other peripheral. For the case of computer networks, the number and variety of available output devices can be quite large, resulting in data transfer incompatibility problems.
One problem associated with current computer network environments is that they do not allow the automatic sending of electronic material from one application to unlike destinations from a single source application or document. For example, current window driver solutions do not allow an operator to automatically send a print job from a print driver to any one of several receiving devices, or printers. Instead, the operator must reconfigure the system to deliver output to a specific print driver of a selected output device.
With current window driver solutions, each printer forms an output device having a dedicated print engine requiring dedicated encoding for the associated print processor. For example, a print processor produces a file of drawing instructions for a configured printer. Normally, a permanent link is provided between the application (e.g., a word processor), the intermediate drawing file, and a single, dedicated output device. Optionally, the user can select one of several dedicated output devices via a windows-based menu. However, such a configuration is formatted for use with one output device which the user has selected, and remains dedicated to such device until it is manually reconfigured.
Therefore, a need exists for a system that distributes print jobs from a computer operating within a computer network environment to any one of several unlike output devices from a single print request within an application.
Another problem associated with current computer network environments is the inability to send originating source data multiple times to multiple output devices. For example, current window driver solutions do not allow an operator to automatically parse the source data multiple times to obtain the necessary encodings for each output device. Instead, the operator must reconfigure the system to perform each delivery of output to each specific print driver of each selected output device.
This invention relates to an information distributing apparatus and method which overcomes the above drawbacks. The information distributing apparatus of this invention improves distribution of source jobs for output to any one of multiple unlike output devices. The information distributing apparatus of this invention also improves distribution of source jobs to multiple receiving output devices form a single source application/document.